New(castle) Brown Ale

Wednesday night, I decided it was time to start a new batch of beer. The kit in the fridge was a Brown Ale based on Newcastle, the imported Brown Ale available at most supermarkets and liquor stores. Newcastle is a tasty beverage, and quite popular. This will be my sixth brewing effort.

So far, I hae brewed an Amber Ale, a Brown Ale, a Red Ale, a Heffeweizen, and a Pale Ale. The Amber Ale went into the history blogs last weekend, when I drank up the last two bottles on our Spring Break Camping Trip. The Brown Ale went into the history blogs a few days after we got home. There is still a few more than six Red Ales, a brew which Shannon, my Brewmeistress, is particularly fond of. It is crisp and clean, and there are no floaters in there.

We just cracked the first few bottles of Heff, and it is very different from Red Ale. I would say it is a difficult transition, but after a couple of bottles, it proves to be acceptable. The next one up is the Pale Ale, which will be ready to taste on May First. It will be tasted on May First, because that is my birthday. But first, I am going to a brewpub in Oroville California, to try a sampler.

But, I digress. I was talking about my latest brew. I spent about an hour cleaning and washing and disinfecting before I could even think of brewing. I have to say I am meticulous about cleaning my gear, because I want to share my brews with other people, and I want them to be assured of the highest standards of quality and care in the final product.

The brewing is rather easy: Boil some water, steep the grain, add the malt sugar and some hops, boil for a while, add more hops, boil some more, cool, and transfer to the carboy. Then, the yeast goes in, and the carboy goes in the closet with the airlock stopper installed.

It bubbled just slightly the first couple of hours, the next morning it was going well. By the second morning, the yeast was swirling in the wort, and bubbles were coming alsmost constantly. I love to lie in bed before going to sleep, listening to the bubbles going through the airlock. It is soothing and very relaxing.

Beer is basically a solution of sugar and water, with some impurities, into which a yeast is introduced. The yeast eats the sugars, and craps out alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The gas leaves the solution and is vented to the atmosphere, but the alcohol remains in the solution. The yeast cells reproduce and increase in number, and enjoy heir life in the wonderful sugar environment, but eventually, they end up eating the sugar and polluting their environment with alcohol. I'm not sure which kills them soonest, starvation or pollution, but they mostly die off, and their remnants fall to the bottom, leaving a solution of water and alcohol, and a little sugar, and some impurities.

The process is called fermentation, and it takes several days, up to a couple of weeks. I suspect most of it is finished in the first few days, because the peak level of activity in the carboy is usully one or two days afer the fermenting begins, and only lasts maybe one full day. After that, it slows down significantly. I like to leave mine in for eight to ten days.

I'm looking at moving the Brown to the secondary carboy, where it will settle out the solids, on May Second. After that, it is a week from being bottled. Of course, it's time to think about what Batch Number Seven will be.